Teaching
As a teacher, my main aim has been to work towards "decolonizing the mind", as Kenyan novelist Ngugi Wa Thiong’o famously put it. This is all the more relevant in the context of once imperial nations in Europe, which are finally catching up with the postcolonial moment. Universities play a central role in this process.
As Professor of Global Literatures in English at the University of Zurich (2015-2021), I consistently met with genuine interest on the part of students to tackle issues that they instinctively connected with their own experiences in postcolonial Europe, directly or indirectly. I have worked with both descendants of colonized people (children of immigrants from nations previously colonized by European powers) and descendants of colonizers who are keenly aware of their ancestors' participation in the colonial project. This applies even to nations such as Switzerland, which, while not having colonized other nations directly, were actively involved in the financial and logistical sides of imperialism.
This online lecture on violence in postcolonial African rap took place at the University of Zurich as part of a lecture series on the topic
Regarding Violence: Perspectives in Literature, History and Law
in the Fall Semester of 2019:
